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Birth of Gustavo "Gus" C. Garcia
On July 27, 1915 Gus Garcia was born in Laredo, Texas, to Alfredo and Maria Teresa (Arguindegui) Garcia. -
Carlos C. Cadena Birth
Carlos C. Cadena was born on October 11, 1917, in San Antonio, Texas, the youngest of seven children of Aureleano Cadena and Dolores Espinosa Larranaga, who had emigrated from Mexico in 1907. -
Gus Garcia High School Graduation
Gus graduated valedictorian of Thomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio Texas -
Gus Gracia's College Graduation
Ater receiving a scholarship to attend the University of Texas at Austin, Gus joined the campus debate team. While competing he out debated Harvard's star debater John F. Kennedy. In 1938 he graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree and passed the state bar a year later. -
Garcia became assistant district attorney
Gus Garcia became assistant to Bear County district attorney John Schook -
Carlos Cadena's College education
Cadena, the only Mexican American in his class, ranked third out of 117 law school graduates. As an undergraduate, Cadena was student editor of the Texas Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif and Phi Delta Phi. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Texas law school with an LL.B. degree in 1940 -
Garcia became assistant city attorney
Gus Garcia became assistant city attorney under Victor Keller -
Gus Garcia was drafted for service in World War II
While working as assistant city attorney, de became first lieutenant in the United States infantry and was Stationed in Japan. -
Cadena became Assistant City Attorney
After graduating, Cadena worked as an assistant city attorney in San Antonio from until 1943, when he was drafted into the Army Air Force. -
Garcia's Participation in the United Nations
Gus Garcia was a participant when the United Nations was founded in 1945 in San Francisco -
Cadena's time with Goodrich and Dalton
After his discharge from the military in 1946 Cadena practiced law with the firm of Goodrich and Dalton in Mexico City for a year -
Cuero School closure
In April 1947, Gus Garcia filed suit on school authorities in Cuero to force closure of the Mexican school there. -
Carlos Cadena's return to San Antonio
Carlos Cadena returned to San Antonio to become a partner in the firm of Archer, San Miguel and Cadena from 1947 to 1950. During this period he won a restrictive covenant case that helped open the San Antonio real estate market to Mexican Americans -
Gus Garcia joined the Mexican Consulate General
Gus Garcia joined the Mexican Consulate General in San Antonio -
Mendez v. Westminster ISD
Mendez v. Westminster ISD case ended de jure segregation of Mexican-descent children in California. -
Delgado v. Bastrop ISD
After the Mendez v. Westminster ISD case ended de jure segregation of Mexican-descent children in California, Garcia filed a similar suit in Texas, aided by Robert C. Eckhardt of Austin and A. L. Wirin of the Los Angeles Civil Liberties Union. Delgado v. Bastrop ISD (1948) made illegal the segregation of children of Mexican descent in Texas. -
Felix Longoria Affair
In 1949, Gus Garcia served as lawyer to the family of Felix Longoria and helped contract negotiations for the rights of workers in the United States- Mexico Bracero Program -
Cadena's return to the University of Texas
In 1950 Cadena returned to the University of Texas as a John Jay Whitney Fellow, taking additional courses in law, philosophy, education, economics, and government -
Fight for desegregation enforcement
On May 8, 1950 Gus Garcia and George I. Sanches appeared before the State Board of Education to seek desegregation enforcement. -
The indictment of Pete Hernandez
In September of 1951, a grand jury in Jackson County, Texas, indicted migrant cotton worker Pete Hernandez of the 1950 murder of Joe Espinosa. -
Conviction of Pete Hernandez
A Jackson County jury convicted Pete Hernandez of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment. -
Pete Hernandez's appel of his conviction
Pete Hernandez's Appel claimed "he was discriminated against upon the trial of this case because members of the Mexican nationality were deliberately, systematically, and willfully excluded from the grand jury that found and retired the indictment in this case and from the petit jury panel from which was selected the petit jury that tried the case." -
"Latin of the Year"
In 1952 the University of Texas Alba Club named Gus Garcia "Latin of the Year" -
Cadena's time as a professor
He was a professor of law at St. Mary's from 1952 to 1954 -
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejection of Pete Hernandez Appeal
On June 18, 1952, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected Pete Hernandez's appeal in part because it found that Mexicans "are not a separate race but are white people of Spanish descent" and since other white people served on the juries, the absence of people of Mexican ancestry did not violate equal protection. -
Writ of Certiorari: Hernandez v. State of Texas
On January 19, 1953, Gus and attorney Carlos Cadena of San Antonio filed a writ of certiorari with the United States Supreme Court to seek review of the Hernandez case, since the trial was decided by an all-white jury in Edna. -
Gus Garcia's extra 16 minuets
When Garcia appeared before the Supreme Court on January 11, 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren gave him sixteen extra minutes to present his argument. -
Hernandez v. State of Texas
On January 11, 1954, the United States Supreme Court began hearing arguments -
The Supreme Court issued its decision on Hernandez v. Texas
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that as the petitioner’s “only claim is the right to be indicted and tried by juries from which all members of his class are not systematically excluded—juries selected from among all qualified persons regardless of national origin or descent. To this much, he is entitled by the Constitution.” -
Gus Garcia's Death
Gus Garcia died of a seizure in an office in the Old Farmer's Market on June 3, 1964 -
Carlos C. Cadena's Death
Cadena died of complications from lung cancer on January 11, 2001, in San Antonio